Little Bird

I was thinking of snagging a bottle of this in the restock, but then realized that the bottles are now up to $32 per 5ml (and $32 for a tablespoon of oil is starting to get way too rich for my blood), so I pulled out my old decant instead. I never really got the motor oil note in this, and I still don't. The black musk is still very prominent and goes slightly powdery on me. The myrrh is sweet, syrupy, and cola-like, but there's also something here that reads very headshop/nag champa on my skin, which myrrh usually doesn't do. In the drydown, there's something like gritty, dirty, hot tar or charred, chemical black leather, and I'm wondering if that is supposed to be the motor oil. All in all, I think I'm ready to let go of my thoughts of owning a bottle of this.

I love this and am very happy to have a bottle. Ian is mostly leather on my skin, and it's a warm, well-worn, slightly dusty, cozy sort of leather to my nose. The rum is present, but doesn't smell overly boozy or sickly sweet for once. It's like a hint of almond liqueur on my skin that adds just a pleasant touch of sweetness. Patchouli adds a warm earthiness in the drydown after a couple hours. But mostly this is a gorgeous leather fragrance.

Starts off as a honeyed pine for about an hour, and the menthol edge to the pine mixed with the honey has a sort of cough syrup impression on my skin. After the first hour, starts settling into a soft, earthy, slightly gritty smelling patchouli. I love patchouli and am enjoying honey scents lately, but I don't like This nearly as much as I thought I would. The patchouli has an ashy quality to it that I don't care for, and I don't love the menthol pine and honey opening stage either.

Every note in this sounded good to me, except for the jasmine, so of course that's the loudest note in the blend. Bright, loud, slightly sour jasmine sweetened with a bit of honey and with a slight hint of dusty woods.

Most of bpal's chocolate scents turn to powder or plastic on me, and the marshmallows tend to be weirdly fruity or musky, so I avoided The Other Hot Chocolate for a long time. That is unfortunate, because this scent is amazing. It clings kind of close to the skin, but lasts all day on me, and my husband tells me that I smell like buttery caramel when I wear this. It smells like really thick, dark hot chocolate (like fudgy underbaked brownies + hot cocoa) to me for about a half hour and then shifts into a yummy, buttery, slightly salty, rice krispies treats type marshmallow. Sweet, creamy and perfect.

I like this version of Wild Men so much more than the previous one. The previous version went dirty and sour smelling on my skin, where this is so smooth, warm, and lightly sweetened. I'm mainly smelling the red amber and clove with a bit of patchouli and a gourmand sweetness from the vanilla flower (the clove & vanilla flower mesh together for a scent that's like baking cookies that are starting to burn around the edges, but sexier). Red amber is warm, sultry and resinous, and not turning to baby powder at all. I love the patchouli used in this too. It's a chewy, dark, sweet, almost damp sort of earthiness. I'm having a hard time describing this blend, because it is so SO good. Sort of like vanilla & clove cookies roasting over some warm, resinous, sexy amber with dabs of patchouli that's sweet and earthy-damp-tobacco-esque. A little masculine-cologne-like as it dries down, but sweet and dark and certainly not a traditional cologne. Sweet, resinous, clove. Amazing. I want backup bottles.

With the previous version of Zarita, I loved the opening (that smelled like creme brulee and orange blossoms) and hated the sharp, perfumey, white floral iris drydown. This new version of Zarita smells like the foodie opening stage of the old Zarita, minus the sharp iris drydown. I love it and it is so amazing. I'm getting lots of sugared cream and spicy carnation from this version, with a hint of creamy orange blossom, and it is fantastic. The carnation smells spicy and sugary, reminding me of Queen Alice's dry, apple cider spiced carnation. The orange blossom is creamy, sweet, and hangs out in the background. The sugared cream is the main player and it smells so delicious. It makes me think of creme brulee and bowls of vanilla-y whipped cream and white sugar with a slice of moist spice cake in the drydown. I was worried about the iris and white berries, but I don't smell either of them here. This version is a heavenly gourmand with no sharp florals at all. Beautiful on my skin

French Tobacco is my favorite single note, so I crossed my fingers and ordered two bottles of Bulgarian Tobacco. I love earthy, sweet tobaccos and hate gritty or smoky varieties (if it smells like standard cigarettes or ash tray, I can't stand it, but I love clove cigarette, cigar leaves, and chewing tobacco type scents). Thankfully, this isn't smoky, harsh or gritty at all. Bulgarian Tobacco makes me think of cigar shops and sticky-sweet, dark, rich, chewing tobacco leaves with a sprinkling of dark cassia/cinnamon. The spice amps up on me for a few minutes and I was like "oh no," but then it calms down and moves to the background. I'm not getting any smoke from this at all. It's chewy and sweet smelling with a damp, earthy, sweet tobacco leaf scent. I still love French Tobacco just a wee bit more, but Bulgarian Tobacco is gorgeous. Hoard worthy.

The Thirteens never smell the way that I imagine they will when I read their lists of notes. I expected this to be resin heaven, but it's mostly sugar and dark, rich chocolate with a sad whimper of dusty amber on my skin. Dark chocolate with a black, burnt sugar edge and hints of dusty, warm amber. I really wanted and expected this to be more resinous. I enjoy the chocolate note and it smells delicious, but I wanted myrrh, copal, olibanum, benzoin and dragon's blood, and I don't smell any of those notes at all. This lasted for over 6 hours (before I showered) and was strong, dark chocolate all the way through. I'm going to keep the two bottles I ordered, because I do like the chocolate, but I'm really going to hope that the resins take over with some aging.

I like geranium to be more spicy and herbal, where it's green and sharply rosy here, and has a definite soapiness in the drydown. I can also pick out the sweet peach, lemony-sour bergamot, and carnation spice. It all melds together into this sweet, perfumey fruity-floral, though, with an edge of soapiness and sour, sharp rose. I'm not getting any patchouli.

I wish that this smelled like Chanel's Coromandel on me, and I'm jealous of people who are getting more of the white chocolate note . I seem to be getting more of the white peony, iris and vegetal musk. It's a sharp white floral and clean, almost soapy, spring fresh floral type of smell. Sort of a clean laundry feel. There's a bit of powdery amber in the drydown, but it's mostly clean and not really earthy or gourmand on my skin at all.

I wanted more neroli from this, but it's mainly a sharp, citrusy, bright, almost sour white tea on my skin. Cool and refreshing, but sharper and more clean smelling than I generally enjoy.

The pink pepper smells sweet on me, kind of like pink bubblegum and cinnamon, mixed with powdery sandalwood and perfumey, dry, floral osmanthus. A very dry, spicy scent. I actually don't get much of a tea impression from it.

On me, this is soapy rose and cool evergreen, drying down to a soapy lavender and powdery sandalwood with a hint of sharp rose. Too much soap for me.

I love orris's soft, powdered sugary, vanilla-violet thing as much as I hate iris's sharp, perfumey/musky, cheap white floral smell. On me, this is a pretty even mix of both, and I can't pick out the coconut or pear. The sharp iris ruins the sweeter, creamier elements for me.

I'm not a fan of nag champa incense. It always smells cheap and headshoppy to me. I'm not a huge fan of this single note, either, but I wasn't really expecting to love this one. It has that powdery, dusty, sweet, almost grape-candy tone to it that I get from nag champa incense sticks. The drydown is a bit less sweet, more golden powdery and clean floral, but mostly it smells like a new age shop selling dusty incense sticks.

A potent attraction blend. Can be used alone or in conjunction with other oils to amplify their power. This is only going to be a commentary on the scent, because I really love the fragrance and haven't used Magnet enough yet to have formed an opinion on its effectiveness. When I first got my latest TAL order box, I could smell Magnet before I even opened it. Then I had to open and sniff at all of my bottles to find out where the beautiful smell was coming from. I'm not sure how to describe this... it's almost a sweet, creamy sort of citrus, with a slightly herbal edge. I normally hate citrus, but this reminds me of a lemon sherbet, but with a creamier edge. My sister-in-law said that it smells like creamy lily of the valley and a sweet citrus. My boy just said that he likes it. I'm crap at picking out floral notes, so pehaps it is lily. After about an hour, it also begins to take on a sort of sultry, spicier incensey quality on me. Whatever it is, Magnet smells very pretty.

Overview: Hair gloss is a heavy, oily spray that quickly overwhelms my long, fine hair and makes it look and feel very greasy. I can't use this product anywhere but very sparingly on the ends of my hair, or else it makes my head look like an oil slick. I'm really careful with my hair and the products that I use on it. For a while, I was using this to fragrance the ends of my hair, but I find that it makes my hair fall out a lot, either from the high fragrance oil content, the heaviness of the oil itself, or something else. I wanted to love these and wanted them to work, because of the fragrances, but now I only use the hair gloss as a body mist on my arms and legs, not actually on my hair. Fragrance review: I like the Banana Cream Pie hair gloss a lot more than the perfume oil. I didn't get much banana from the perfume oil. The hair gloss smells like I took a real banana, green peel and all, and mushed it into my hair. I often think of a smoothie made with banana, ice and rice milk. It's a cool, milky, fresh banana. Then every once in a while I catch whiffs of powdery banana candy (just like banana runts candy) and musky, golden pie crust. It's really good, but I don't know if I'd ever wear this one much. I'm obsessed with Dorian hair gloss or heavier, earthier glosses... this is fresh, golden, milky, fruity.

The honey, vanilla, sugar, cream and pumpkin in this all meld together into the best pancake breakfast ever. It smells like good maple syrup, warm and melting butter, sweet pancakes, creamy & eggy French toast, and walnut and cream studded struedels. It's all drenched in syrup and cream, drizzled in honey, and with the pumpkin adding a very subtle, buttery spiciness, as though one of the French toast pieces was dusted in a hint of cinnamon (and cinnamon usually amps up on me, but it stays quiet here). So much yum. As it dries down, I think I smell caramel coffee as well. This is definitely a sweet sugar rush, but I love how creamy and buttery this is, and I love that it smells like a dream breakfast buffet.

I love this when it's first applied. It smells like black earth, dark moss and soft heather poking through a layer of melting ice. Very natural and evocative. This stage lasts only about 3 minutes on me, though, before the honeyed red musk amps up and takes over. Slinky, sexy, warm red musk (like dark, grapey wine and nag champa incense sweetened with lots of smooth, golden honey and a hint of clean, cool perfume from the white musk and ice. Very pretty, but I miss the earthy opening.

In the bottle, this smells like powdery banana candy, and was so artificial and dry that I didn't even want to try it on. But I always try everything on, compulsively, so on it went. I was hoping that this would be like Splatter Comedy (my dream banana cream scent) minus the metal note, but this is a lot more artificial and chemical smelling. Starts off as banana candy and dries down to a warm, musky vanilla sugar and golden pie crust thing. Something about this is reminding me of chemical-y scented markers and keeps making me feel like I'm going to cough and it's getting stuck in my throat when I smell it. It's also so overwhelmingly sweet; it's definitely cloying. It's kind of a big, warm, sugary, heavy mess on my skin, and I can't smell the banana at all after about ten minutes. It's also not creamy at all to my nose, but rather very dry smelling. Dry, golden pie crust, heaps of musky, cloying sugar, and a sweet scented markers thing...

This is amazing in the hair gloss (brownies, marshmallows, cookie dough, and melty chocolates) and not so great for me in the perfume oil. The hair gloss has tons of throw and staying power, where the perfume oil only lasts about an hour on my skin, and the perfume oil version has a clean, plasticy quality that ruins it for me, and a kind of powdery drydown.

Overview: Hair gloss is a heavy, oily spray that quickly overwhelms my long, fine hair and makes it look and feel very greasy. I can't use this product anywhere but very sparingly on the ends of my hair, or else it makes my head look like an oil slick. I'm really careful with my hair and the products that I use on it. For a while, I was using this to fragrance the ends of my hair, but I find that it makes my hair fall out a lot, either from the high fragrance oil content, the heaviness of the oil itself, or something else. I wanted to love these and wanted them to work, because of the fragrances, but now I only use the hair gloss as a body mist on my arms and legs, not actually on my hair. Fragrance review: Bpal's chocolate scents are hit or miss on me. They either smell realistic and amazing or they turn to powder or plastic on my skin. The Marshmallow Cookie Pie perfume oil turns plasticy on me and fades rather quickly. The gloss turns just a little plasticy and lasts a lot longer. To me, this smells like fresh, moist chocolate cake, boozy chocolate liqueur, and sugary, vanilla-ish cookie dough. It's more of a really sugary, super-sweet marshmallow after about an hour, like that marshmallow paired with an underbaked, gooey, oozing with chocolate brownie. I find this to be rather cloying and a bit too much at times, but sometimes I'm in the mood for this sugarbomb. Brownies, cookie dough, marshmallows, all sorts of gooey chocolate goodness, just a little plasticy and fuzzy-scented-marker-ish... lots of fun

Snake Oil perfume oil is awful to me (smells like unwashed, oily, sweaty hair with baby powder in it). It's the same no matter how long I age it. I'm just not a fan of the stuff at all. I don't find it as horrible in the bath oil, but I still don't get the appeal. It has a chemical smell to it, almost like the smell of wet paint. Then maybe a dark musk and sugar? If I apply it directly to my skin, it starts to get a little of that funky, dirty hair and baby powder thing happening. In the bath it's a weak, musky-ish, dark-ish, chemical smell...

The jar I got of this was very oily, and smells like sugary fruit juice (apple and white grape, maybe) and gummi bears. Sugary, nondescript fruitiness. I was hoping for more rose and vanilla. It's too fruity for me.